zaBYTE’s Open Internet Transparency Policy

Open Internet Transparency Policy

APRIL 1, 2021

zaBYTE LLC (“zaBYTE”, “we,” “our,” or “us”) is committed to an open Internet and supports the following Net Neutrality principles:

This Open Internet Transparency Policy sets forth certain information regarding the policies and practices of zaBYTE and how we manage our network for broadband internet access service (the “[zaBYTE] Network”). This Open Internet Policy is a supplement to and is incorporated by reference in our zaBYTE  Terms of Service Agreement for Internet Service  (“Service Agreement’”) (available at: https://zabyte.net/policy-TOSA), and in the event of any inconsistency between this Open Internet Transparency Policy and the Service Agreement, this Open Internet Transparency Policy shall control.

zaBYTE’s broadband access service is primarily a fixed wireless service (“Service”). Generally, given the nature of fixed wireless services, certain circumstances may affect the speed and quality of the Service, including but not limited to foliage, line-of-sight obstructions, the distance between a Customer’s premises and the transmission point, as well as the Customer’s connection of multiple devices to the zaBYTE Network. Although we have engineered the zaBYTE Network to provide consistent high-speed data services, some network management for these scenarios is required, because very heavy data usage by even a few customers at times and places of competing network demands can affect the performance of all Customers.

Overall, zaBYTE does not unreasonably prohibit, interfere with or disadvantage a Customer’s ability to select, access or use our broadband Internet service or the lawful content, applications, services, or devices of a Customer’s choice.

I. NETWORK MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

 A. Blocking: Other than reasonable network management practices disclosed below, we do not block or otherwise prevent a Customer from lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices.

B. Throttling: Other than reasonable network management practices disclosed below, we do not throttle or otherwise degrade or impair access to lawful Internet traffic on the basis of content, application, services, user, or use of a non-harmful device.

C. Affiliated Prioritization: We do not directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other traffic, including through use of techniques such as traffic shaping, prioritization, or resource reservation, to benefit any of our affiliates, defined as an entity that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with zaBYTE.

D. Paid Prioritization: We do not directly or indirectly favor some traffic over other traffic, including through use of techniques such as traffic shaping, prioritization, or resource reservation, in exchange for consideration, monetary or otherwise.

E. Zero Rating: We do not engage in zero rating for any reason. Zero rating means exempting some Internet traffic from a Customer’s data usage allowance.

F. Special Treatment for Certain Edge Providers: An edge provider is any individual or entity the delivers content, application or services over the Internet, or provides a device for accessing content, application or service over the Internet. We do not discriminate in the delivery of our Service against any edge provider nor do we unreasonably interfere with or disadvantage an edge provider’s ability to make lawful content, applications, services, or devices available to Customers. We do not require or accept consideration, monetary or otherwise, from any edge provider to:

  i. Deliver Internet traffic to and from a Customer, or to avoid having the edge provider’s content, application, service or non-harmful device blocked from reaching our Customers.

 ii. Avoid having the edge provider’s content, application, service, or non-harmful device impaired or degraded.

G. Congestion Management: Our Service is provided on a “best efforts” basis and our congestion management practices are in place to ensure that all Customers experience as high quality a service under varying usage periods. Our typical frequency of congestion is estimated at 1%. Customers select how much high-speed data they receive under a designated Service plan; the specific Service plan is set forth in the Customer’s Confirmation os Sale (“COS”).  If a Customer exceeds his/her/its selected high-speed allotment during a service cycle, we may reduce the Customer’s data speed for the remainder of that service cycle. We do not impose any additional usage limits for the Service. In a manner consistent with our Service Agreement and Privacy Policy, we may monitor network traffic to ensure capacity is sufficient to maintain an efficient network load, to perform diagnostics and to otherwise manage and enhance the zaBYTE Network for improved delivery to Customers. To help manage traffic on the zaBYTE Network, during times of high demand, we may allocate available bandwidth among Customers on an equal basis, by account level. In addition, as a reasonable network management practice we may schedule the traffic for Internet Protocol (“VoIP”), over other Internet traffic types to address the needs of emergency communications, law enforcement, or national security authorities.

i. We may also use specific traffic shaping software in order to reduce congestion, boost latency, and maximize technical performance by controlling available bandwidth for certain kinds of Internet traffic.

ii. We may also conduct deep packet inspection (“DPI”), which is a type of filtering that will examine the data and/or header part of Internet traffic for viruses, spam, intrusions, or protocol non-compliance that may harm the zaBYTE Network; to determine the routing of Internet traffic; for internal statistical and performance purposes; for lawful intercept capabilities, and/or enforcement of our Service Agreement. We do not use DPI to conduct data mining for targeted marketing or advertising, or anti-competitive purposes.

iii. If we determine, in our sole and reasonable discretion, that the manner in which a Customer is using the Service negatively impacts the technical capability of other Customers to receive the Services or the operations of the zaBYTE Network, we reserve the right to apply additional congestion management techniques.

H. Application-Specific Behavior: Subject to the qualification that zaBYTE may reasonably limit or rate-control specific or classes of applications, or other specific protocols or protocol ports as set forth below, zaBYTE generally treats all lawful applications identically. However, we reserve the right to block or limit access to any applications, ports or protocols that we determine, in our sole and reasonable discretion, may harm the zaBYTE Network or otherwise interfere with or impair the experience of other Customers on the zaBYTE Network. 

I. Device Attachment Rules: Generally, you do not need approval to connect a third-party device to the Network.  ZaBYTE does not limit the types of devices that can be connected to the zaBYTE Network, provided they are used for lawful purposes and do not harm the zaBYTE Network, violate our Service Agreement, or harm other users of the Network. However, if we determine, in our sole and reasonable discretion, that the connection of a particular type of device to the zaBYTE Network negatively impacts other users or the zaBYTE Network such as causing interference or other technical problems, creating a security risk, or violating our Service Agreement we reserve the right to limit or restrict Customer’s ability to connect any such device to the zaBYTE Network. If you need technical support services to assist you in the installation and configuration of third party devices, please contact us or visit support@zabyte.net. Depending on your level of Service and your COS, there may be an additional monthly fee for IT support services.

J. Security: We have taken reasonable physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect the integrity and operations of the zaBYTE Network. We monitor the zaBYTE Network for security threats and may prohibit certain activity on the zaBYTE Network that we may deem, in our sole and reasonable discretion, poses a potential risk to the zaBYTE Network or to other Customers. Triggering conditions include but are not limited to denial of service activity, IP address or port scanning, excessive account login failures; or certain Internet addresses that are disruptive, malicious and typically persistent. If we notice excessive Customer connections, including but not limited to Wi-Fi connections, that are harmful or are commonly used to disrupt the normal use of the zaBYTE Network or use by other Customers, we will attempt to notify the Customer to work collaboratively to remedy the issue to the extent possible; however, we reserve the right as a reasonable network management to protect our Customer’s security,  without advance notice, to lock any Customer traffic, ports, protocols, devices, or applications (such as peer-to-peer applications that may carry malicious software or are known to disrupt the delivery of Internet Service to other Customers) that we determine, in our sole and reasonable discretion, may cause harm to the zaBYTE Network or to other Customers, due to unlawful activity, devices, or content.

  1. PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS AND COMMERCIAL TERMS

Specific Service fees and rates for an individual Customer is set forth in the Customer’s Confirmation of Sale (“COS”). Various information is also publicized on the zaBYTE Website.

A. Service Description and Pricing: Links to a current description of the categories of Internet access service offered to residential and business Customers are available here, including pricing, expected and actual access speed and latency, and the suitability of the service for real-time applications:

RESIDENTIAL

i. [Premium 1 Plan], details available at https://zabyte.net/plans-pricing

BUSINESS

i. [Enterprise 1 Plan], details available at https://zabyte.net/plans-pricing

B. Impact of Non-Broadband Internet Access Service Data Services (also known as “Specialized Services”): We do not offer data-related Specialized Services to Customers that will affect the last-mile capacity available for, and the performance of, our broadband Internet access Service offering or that harms the open Internet.  However, depending on how many people are using the Services from a Customer’s premises, there may be a temporary slowing of Internet speed when using any of zaBYTE’s broadband services and a VoIP and /or an Internet Protocol video offering (“IPTV”) at the same time. VoIP and IPTV are delivered using zaBYTE’s Internet access service but have a different technical requirement. Therefore, zaBYTE utilizes industry-standard reasonable network management practices to schedule VoIP and IPTV traffic across its network so that there is quality control and a reduced chance of dropped calls pr compromised video. Additionally, VoIP services are important to address the needs of emergency communications, law enforcement, public safety and national security. 

C. Various Fees. We will assess the following fees for our Service, where applicable. Please see our Service Level Plans and Pricing for details.

i. Standard Installation Fee

ii. Additional Installation Fees may include:

    1. Installation of CAT 5 Cabling from antenna location to the router 
    2. Connection cable/lines
    3. Wiring                

iii. Equipment Rental/ Lease Fee

iv. Late Fee

v. Equipment Repair/Replacement Fee

vi. Cancellation Fee

vii. Early Termination Fee

viii. Reconnection Fee for Terminated Service due to Non-Payment

ix. Service Change Fee

x. Non-Returned Equipment Fee

xi. Non-Payment Fee Automated Clearing House (‘ACH’) electronic check payment returned for non-payment or insufficient funds, or for any credit card chargeback.

D. Fees for Additional Services: ZaBYTE does not offer additional network-related services at this time.

E. Network Speeds: ZaBYTE offers a standard range of download speeds to residential Customers at up to 50 Mbps. The standard range of download speeds for business Customers is up to 200 Mbps. The zaBYTE Network is designed to support these speeds to help ensure that every Customer receives the speeds to which they have subscribed.  ZaBYTE however cannot guarantee speeds at all times, as there are many factors and conditions beyond zaBYTE’s control that can affect Internet performance. Some of these external factors and conditions are:

i. Performance of Customer’s computer and/or router.

ii. Type of connection to Customer’s  own equipment (i.e., Wi-Fi).

iii. Congestion of websites and services on Internet.

iv. Website or service limiting speeds on the Internet.

v. Internet and equipment performance outside of the zaBYTE Network.

The zaBYTE Services are advertised as “up to” certain speeds reflecting performance under ideal conditions. Without purchasing an expensive “dedicated” Internet connection, no Internet Service Provider can guarantee package speeds at all times.

F. Acceptable Use: As set forth in the Service Agreements, all of zaBYTE’s service offerings are subject to the Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) section of the Service Agreements, which we may from time to time establish or revise. The AUP is available here: https://zabyte.net/policy-AUP.

G. Privacy Policy: zaBYTE’s current Privacy Policy is available here: https://zabyte.net/policy-privacy.

H. Redress Options: zaBYTE endeavors to respond to all Customer concerns and complaints in a timely and fair manner. We encourage Customers to contact us at info@zabyte.net or U.S. postal mail to discuss any complaints or concerns as they arise. Our postal address is zaBYTE LLC 22431 Antonio Pkwy., Suite #B160-506 Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688.

I. Disputes and Arbitration: The Service Agreement requires the use of arbitration to resolve disputes and otherwise limits the remedies available to Customers in the event of a dispute.

  1. FCC REQUIREMENTS AND COMPLAINT PROCESS

The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has adopted rules to preserve the Internet as an open platform (“Rules”). Information regarding these Rules is available on the FCC’s website at: https://www.fcc.gov/restoring-internet-freedom.

If a Customer believes that we are not in compliance with the FCC’s rules, the Customer may file an informal complaint with the FCC. The FCC urges Customers to submit any complaints via its website at the following address: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us.

  1. ADDITIONAL DISCLAIMERS

This Open Internet Transparency Policy does not affect, alter or otherwise supersede the legal status of cooperative efforts by zaBYTE that are designed to curtail copyright or trademark infringement in response to information provided by rights holders in a manner that is timely, effective, and accommodates the legitimate interests of the company, rights holders, our Customers and other end users. Furthermore, this Open Internet Transparency Policy does not prohibit us from making reasonable efforts to address the transfer of unlawful content or unlawful transfers of content. For additional information, please review the Service Agreement and Privacy Policy.

Copyright © 2022 zaBYTE LLC – All rights reserved.